« my mattress: doorknobs and pine straw (subtitled: another year with the IRAs) | Main | confuzzed »
September 27, 2006
their archrivals are the perennials
Despite reports to the contrary, Annuals are not merely a sophisticated amalgam of the sounds of Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, and Animal Collective (of those three though I think the most accurate comparison is BSS); they definitely have their own direction, and, to my ears, a lot of what the band accomplishes in their songs is centered around a kind of deceptive creation of space. When I listened to the band's debut album, "Be He Me", the first thing that came to mind wasn't another band, but a particular book: Mark Danielewski's "House of Leaves", which revolves around a house that's somehow wider on the inside than it is on the outside (hallways and stairwells that extend for miles and miles). "Be He Me" is an album filled with songs that start off small and confined, but then expand into wide, rolling landscapes, bright and sun-dappled (the perfect example of this is the song 'Brother', featured on Pitchfork and a multitude of mp3blogs).
'Bleary Eyed' is a little more subdued though, beginning with a purposeful acoustic strum and Adam Baker's gentle vocals. The rhythm track is fractured, sprinkled in an asymmetrical way throughout the song (kind of reminiscent of the way Menomena play with their percussion sounds), and ends 'Bleary Eyed' in a propulsive, blurry rush (that's where the track really opens up, with Adam singing in an unrestrained, heart-high-in-his-chest kind of voice). Actually, one of the other things that I think the songs on 'Be He Me' express really well in a way is a sort of hard-to-articulate breathless exuberance- like an unexpected, overwhelming feeling of joy that overtakes you and fades before you even get a chance to examine it, etc. Definitely a nice album to listen to in the fall.
'Be He Me' comes out on Ace Fu Records on October 17th (you can pre-order it here. The band will be touring soon with Art Brut (in Philly!) and Tapes 'N Tapes (elsewhere!), so go check them out if you get the chance.
Posted by Kevin at September 27, 2006 12:47 AM